Category: Uncategorized

PN:

Joe’s Comment – Words are wonderful, and powerful.  Used for good and noble purpose, words are the conveyor of ideas, the purveyor of grace and duty and mercy and retribution and restitution, the vessel of hope, of love.
All that is beautiful and worthwhile and virtuous and meaningful can be expressed with carefully chosen words.
The last four years of absolute hysteria and insanity have convinced me that words, however lovely, however powerful, meaningful, and honorable, mean nothing if the politics are not right.
Andrew Breitbart famously stated that “politics is downstream of culture”.
I have seen nothing that discredits Mr. Breitbart’s sentiment.
Our culture is in tattered ruins.
Charles Krauthammer (RIP) made the following observation about politics.
From the introduction to his excellent collection of essays, “Things That Matter” – “………. Accordingly, this book was originally going to be a collection of my writings about everything but politics.  Things beautiful, mysterious, profound or just odd.  Working title: There’s More to Life than Politics.
But in the end I couldn’t.  For a simple reason, the same reason I left psychiatry for journalism. While science, medicine, art, poetry, architecture, chess, space, sports, number theory, and all things hard and beautiful promise purity, elegance, and sometimes even transcendence, they are fundamentally subordinate. In the end, they must bow to the sovereignty of politics.
Politics, the crooked timber of our communal lives, dominates everything because, in the end, everything – high and low and, most especially, high – lives or dies by politics. You can have the most advanced and efflorescent of cultures. Get your politics wrong, however, and everything stands to be swept away. This is not ancient history. This is Germany 1933.
………….Turns out we need to know one more thing on earth: politics – because of its capacity, when benign, to allow all around it to flourish, and its capacity, when malign, to make all around it wither.
This is no abstraction. We see it in North Korea, whose deranged Stalinist politics has created a land of stunning desolation and ugliness, both spiritual and material. We saw it in China’s Cultural Revolution, a sustained act of national self-immolation, designed to dethrone, debase and destroy the highest achievements of five millennia of Chinese culture. We saw it in Taliban Afghanistan, which, just months before 9/11, marched its cadres into the Bamiyan Valley and with tanks, artillery and dynamite destroyed its magnificent cliff-carved 1,700-year-old Buddhas lest they – like kite flying and music and other things lovely – disturb the scorched-earth purity of their nihilism.
Politics is the moat, the walls, beyond which lie the barbarians. Fail to keep them at bay and everything burns…….” – pp 2
Our politics, in my humble opinion, are in tattered ruins.
We got it wrong.  Malignancy pervades.
Where to lay the blame?
Is it someone, or somewhere, or something that has caused our decline?
Or is it the natural order of nations – the rebellion, the struggle, the birth, the growth, the prosperity, the peace – followed by the degeneracy, the decline, the struggle, the loss, the dissipation?
It breaks my heart to contemplate the following words of John Adams, for I know these words to be true –
The political circus happening in a country near you, in your country, indeed, all the Western nations, is proof.
Contemplate if you will, the damage done to children everywhere during the COVID “crisis”.  Forced to wear masks.  Forced to feel fear.  Some were vaccinated by force (I say forced because they were powerless to object).  Helpless.
Reflect on the innocent people of Ukraine, and Israel, and of the Gaza Strip – no one deserves terror, abuse, death as payment for existing.  Politics gone dreadfully wrong.
The established, natural progression of development in the West is in peril.  Once again, Mr. Adams thought and spoke on the subject –
And so it should be, if only…..
Alas, the tragedy of Life must follow its path.
The natural order is the strong prey on the weak.  Every once in a while, the weak prevail, but only enough to survive, not to overcome.
What state of being is exempt?: body, mind, and spirit.
The lion eats the gazelle.
The quick witted delude (and denude) the slow minded.
It is my belief that “good” triumphs over “bad” (by a slim margin), but confusing strength of spirit with good is a pitfall.
It is my belief that all men have the capacity to be evil or good.  It is circumstance and their will that forces the choice, the action.
A conundrum in politics is that it is better to appear strong and decisive even when you make dreadfully wrong decisions, than to waffle and procrastinate but eventually make the right decision.
Armistice Day was yesterday.
I did not wear a poppy.
It isn’t complicated.  I just don’t feel that the sacrifice made in war is worth any compensation.
War has no victor, no reward.  It is an obscenity.  It is failure.
I will include this song as my “moment of silence”, with reverence.
From Sergeant MacKenzie:

The Culture

Douglas Murray
John Anderson interviews Douglas Murray.
Joe and I have not been fanboys of Mr. Murray in the past, but listening to him at 28:25 caught our attention.
We are reassessing.
Mr. Murray gives his perspective on war crimes he has witnessed or viewed on media, then comments about the Hamas attack on Israeli citizens.
He has the attention of Joe and me and the 35 other maroons in our cranium.
His views on the evil / dark side of Islam coincide with ours.
If Mr. Murray is an example of what is to come, it is an indication that the pendulum of culture has reached its maximum amplitude in the direction of progressive lunacy and is slowly gaining momentum toward equilibrium:

 

Tucker Carlson, Theo Von
Joe and I do not know Theo Von.
We just finished watching him interview Tucker Carlson.
Mixed feelings.  He strikes us as a goofball.
It is a very long conversation, but kept our attention for the most part.
We learned more about Mr. Carlson’s background and career.
How much lawyerly flagellation is continuing in the background regarding his walking papers from Fox News were forced on him back in late April?
Mr. Carlson is an influential polemist.  Joe and I expect he will be back in the public eye in a major way before the 2024 election:

 

John Kennedy
This Republican senator from Louisiana has his head screwed on straight.
He summarizes the turmoil in the world at present.
His metaphors and similes are grin and smirk inspiring:

 

ARC
Jordan Peterson has started the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, with the assistance of many notables.
The first conference was held in London, England in October.
The following video features Mr. Scott Tinker, who brings rationality to the energy argument.
We will embed more of these as they become available:

More from the A.R.C. conference.  Inspiration from Konstantin Kisin:

 

Health

Amnesty for COVID?
The concept of “forgiveness” for the autocratic tyranny imposed during the COVID hysteria ramp-up is foreign to Joe and me.
You can’t turn to Jesus for this one (Jesus said forgive them for they know not what they do).
No, there will be no forgiveness.  The S.O.B.s knew exactly what they did.
It was known from the get-go that ALL of the precautions, mandates, and “law-fare” was complete bullshit.
The damage done is momentous.  More than can be summed up even at this time (November 2023).  The abuse of power was unconscionable.  The destruction of faith in all things medical, governmental, educational, fiscal, and judicial for a start.
Joe and I are too old for this shit.
If “justice” (what a joke!) meant anything, the ringleaders would be answering serious questions in a “court of law”.
There are some folks (soft-boiled egg heads?) who gravitate tragically toward tyranny – even if they are the recipients of the harsh injustice – folks you will hear in the following video.
The research says critical thinking is a skill only 20% possess….
Joe and I agree with Mr. Chad Prather.
We will never forget.  And yes, fuck you!:

Dr. Paul Mason
Is the pendulum of nutrition finally swinging toward sanity?
If this presentation by Dr. Mason is any measure, we would say yes, things are getting real and realistic.  The subtitle is “Why You Shouldn’t Feed Your Child a Vegan Diet”.
As of Sunday evening (just before posting), the video is still available on Ub2b.
Hurrah and hallelujah!:

Joe’s Garage

Aspidistra
The cunning of British Intelligence during World War II is legendary.
Joe and I have a keen interest in the technology and machinery of that conflict, from either the allies and the axis forces.
At the time, Aspidistra was the most powerful radio transmitter in the world!
One of the functions Aspidistra performed was transmitting on German frequencies, overpowering the German transmitters, and giving false information or propaganda to German combatants and civilians both.
An amazing concept that did what it was meant to do.
Was this the early emergence of psychological warfare?
Two videos follow – one Ub2b short, and a very poorly copied video with appalling audio:

4V Ford V-10
If you are a Ford fan like Joe, you will say Dave, you’ve made a boo-boo.
There IS a Ford V-10, but it is a 2V engine.
Not any more.
Some young men decided Ford should have done what they were going to do, so they did it themselves.
Damn straight!
The Little Red Hen has nothing on these fellas.
They took 4V V-8 heads and by cutting and welding and machining, made them into 4V V-10 heads.  They designed and had built camshafts specific to their specifications.
They reprogrammed the ECM (engine control module) parameters: the first part of the video is the tail end of the learning curve they experienced.
Joe and my hat is off to these young men.  That’s the way things get done!
My oh my, does it sound good!:

Continue reading Sunday Rant – 4623

PN:

Joe’s Comment – Another week of reprieve.  So far, so good.  First week of November and it hasn’t snowed or frozen hard.  Some rain this week, but not enough to make the back yard impassable.
Lots of projects to put away for the coming coldness and snow.
Finally paid my property taxes.
I know good and hard what happens when the government screws the pooch – the mil rate goes through the roof.
This property has appreciated (according to the annual government assessment) over $700,000.00 CAN in a brief 18 years.
I don’t know what they call that in your neck of the woods, but here in Vernon BC, Canada, it is called rampant inflation.
I got a good laugh today.
The purchasing power of my pension when I retired in 2002 is now only 55% as much!
Blood sucking parasites at every turn.
Despite the $$$ dilemma, I’m in very good spirits, great health, and getting around with no medications or prosthetics.
Not bad for a man closer to 75 years than 74.
Seven more rants to the end of the year.
Bring it on…..

Canadiana

Carbon Tax
Given the espoused rationale from the lips of Chief Rainbow Socks, our fearless (because he’s oblivious) and feckless (because he’s obtuse) federal leader – he imposed a carbon tax to save the World™!!! (or some such tripe) – it leads people to speculate.  What up?
Joe is good at calculus.  He ponders the penultimate question: if we kill by starvation, or decimate the fiscal life of everyone on the planet in order to “save” it, whom precisely is the benefactor?  By ruining millions (maybe billions) of lives, what is the deliverable?
More concisely, just whom or who are we saving the planet for?   Excuse the dangling participle.  Some emergencies allow for ignoring the rules…… (that be sarcasm, matey!!)
The ultimate question is in everyone’s mind – what is MY fate…..
Is that imbecilic puppet on a stick drama queen (aka Prime Minister Justin Trudeau) doubling down on what is undeniably a political ploy to garner votes?
The answer is a profound YES!
Joe and I watched with incredulity the “pardon” extended for the down easterners in the Maritime provinces – no carbon tax on household heating products – while telling the westerners that they should vote for Liberals, lots more Liberals.
It is enough to affirm the veracity of an H.L. Mencken thought or two as applied to the Canadian version of political graft –
The last quote is golden.  Or platinum – your choice.
“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!”
Even The Shadow is mystified at the motivation, the belief empowering Our Beloved Leader to sacrifice We The Canadian People at the alter of Globalism.
What is it with small unimportant inconsequential people who want to be leaders?  The quality called “leadership” is obvious, not oblivious.  Paraphrasing supreme court justice Potter Stewart, “you know leadership when you see it“.
Joe says Canadian politics is obscene.  And may as well be pornography.
Which leads to a recent opinion editorial from that great Canadian, the man who uses many words when a few will do, the man perpetually capable of voluminous bloviating, Rex Murphy.  Here is his commentary on the carbon tax.
The above is NOT a criticism of Mr. Murphy.  He is a stalwart champion of the Canadian People, the Mud Peckers, the Dirt People, the Salt of the Earth.  Indeed, Joe and I are envious of Mr. Murphy’s glibness and vocabulary, and understanding of Canadian history.
We also think that his commentary on the carbon tax contains facts, and much truth.  From his Op-Ed –
…..”He just cancelled the carbon tax for heating oil in Atlantic Canada. The tax which he and his docile, obedient and grey cabinet have defended with the fervour of one of those dated Sunday morning TV preachers. It was the mother of all taxes since — from the beginning of time, and possibly earlier — it was the ONLY tax that once paid, would (so the Liberals incessantly howled) be followed by a cheque from the government larger than the tax.
And why was this planet-necessary policy amended for Atlantic Canada? First hint: it was not love. Second hint: polling during a Liberal nose-dive. It was the trembling or broken hold on the people’s trust currently on full display, and the irresistible need to grab on to anything that might stem or slow the Liberals’ Gadarene down-flight to voter dismissal, that brought on this Earth-shift in policy.
No hint. Fact. It was Liberal politics. For make no error, if four provinces in the Confederation can be manumitted from the carbon tax crusade, then logic and its stronger cousin — reality— insist that the other six and the territories will not only demand the same relief, they may, which premiers Scott Moe and Danielle Smith have already made clear, provide the relief by their own efforts.
Confederation is a balance of partners, or it was before climate alarmism became the excuse and the shield for the vastly overreaching and imperious Trudeau regime. Premiers make policy, too.
Take away the carbon tax and you take away the whole great game. If that once immutable requisite for a climate commitment on the scale Trudeau has given can be tossed as “inconvenient” (I owe Al Gore its slippery use here) to winning five or six seats in the next election, what remains of principle? What can be believed on any lesser front or issue? If politics trumps the planet for this government, if winning East Coast seats is more important than saving the world … so be it. It was good while it worked.
What’s left of this shambling, shifting and scandal-adhesive government? Not much but more unctuous speeches, unpersuasive photo-ops at (already) troubled EV projects, and — capstone — Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, ex- or not so ex-Greenpeace activist, offering more friendly salutes to China’s great work on this file (opening two more coal mines a week seems to be Beijing’s aim), and more of his feverish speeches for a dying cause.
…… The Atlantic Excision — as I shall call it — from the imperious imposition of the world-saving carbon tax, puts Trudeau in direct and executed opposition to his first and only principle — combatting global warming. What’s he going to say in Paris the next time: “Hey, two-thirds of Canada has a carbon tax?”
The tax is dead. Its author did it in. And perhaps, make that likely, his party with it.”
According to Herr Murphy, the cat is out of the bag, the jig is up, the course has run, the Emperor has no clothes…..
Good bye carbon tax, good bye Liberals, hello marshmallow pie.
Joe and I see it from another perspective.  The old Mensa adage that “half the population is below average in intelligence”, and our own observation that there is no Left, no Right, no Center, colours our thinking.  There are only people.  Some of the people are satisfied with the status quo and their efforts are to keep it so.  Others of the people are NOT satisfied with the status quo, and their efforts are to change things.  Still others are oblivious to their surroundings – some deliberately, delinquently, purposely.  Others of the oblivious are too young to know, too stupid to comprehend (low IQ), too ill to care, so old that they are too inept or impotent to assert their point of view.  And so it goes……
One more HL Mencken and Joe will let it go.  Mr. Mencken restricted his comment with an adjective.  Joe and I believe you can remove the words “the American” or substitute it with any other modifier, it rings true –
For the uneducated and lazy (Joe and me), here’s a definition of manumitted.

Culture

The Hodge Twins
Joe and I have been watching the Hodge brothers (aka PatriotTwins) for years.
They have “gathered their feces” as the popular vernacular phrasing goes.
As “people of color”, much like another set, Diamond and Silk, they are operating in the gray area the progressives haven’t yet succeeded in gagging.
Consequently, the Hodge Twins speak their mind without outright blocking and defunding.  Joe appreciates their sense of humor, and their willingness to speak about racial matters without rancor or bias:

 

Science

CO2 – Dr. William Happer
This is a hero of Joe and me.
The following video is a recent presentation – October this year (2023).
Every presentation from Dr. Happer we see, we learn new facts, details, and interesting information.
A tough crowd.
Dr. Happer fields every question aptly, without theatrics, without rancor, even when his bona fides are challenged.
The truth will out:

Another relatively recent Dr. Happer.  Same data.  Additional personal history.  Additional personal scientific accomplishment detail.  For posterity (Ub2b videos come and go….):

Health

Dr. Paul Mason
An Australian hero, carrying the banner of human nutrition, and broadcasting sane dietary advice.
In this video from Low Carb Down Under, Dr. Mason gives a brief history of how western government “Food Pyramid” recommendations were a political not nutritional construct.
Joe and I have been watching Dr. Mason for years.  The first appearance in our rant was Sunday Rant – 0521.
Dr. Mason advocates low carb high fat as a path to optimized health:

Sanity4Sweden
Sven is our “foreign correspondent”.
Joe and I watch him on a regular basis.
Today’s episode mentions doctors in Canada.
One Canadian doctor, William Makis, claims the total number of doctors who have died due to the COVID vaccinations is 93 to date.
Sven does his usual excellent presentation.
The COVID guilty will come to justice eventually, thanks in part to the grass roots journalism of many folks like Sanity4Sweden:

Here is an interview of Dr. William Makis by Laura Lynn Tyler Thompson:

Dr. Mark Trozzi
This Canadian doctor is being disciplined for telling the truth about the COVID “vaccines”.  He has lost his practice.  He has been ostracized.  He is about to be penalized.
Why?  (You might ask…..)
Well, he did what was right and just and moral and ethical instead of what he was told to do.
He is one of the courageous doctors who have been shouting the truth since the onset of the “pandemic”.
Joe and I consider him to be a hero, and outstanding Canadian doctor:

 

Joe’s Garage

AI
An update on robotics and artificial intelligence from “DigitalEngine“.
Joe says we should replace all politicians with robots immediately.
That way, if they FUBAR or SNAFU or try to solve problems nobody has, you can unplug them.
What a Beach Boys moment!:

Fred Dibnah – Steeplejack
The following video is from the BBC Archive.
It is a short introduction to Fred Dibnah, a steeplejack, with scenes of him working to dismantle what looks like a 200 foot tall industrial chimney.
Brick by brick.
The video is from 1979.
Joe and I marvel at Fred’s aplomb and down-to-earth attitude.
Joe says seven thousand pounds ain’t worth scaring the bejesus out of our self every day at work.
No safety gear, a rickety wooden ladder up the side of the chimney….. and he comes down for tea!
An amazing glimpse of a “career” most likely no longer extant:

Continue reading Sunday Rant – 4523

PN:

Joe’s Comment – All the above thoughts and commentary in action, this week and for the immediate future.  My attempt at motivational fire stoking.
I am trying to motivate myself to be productive and busy and capable during the next 4 to 5 months, until the cold abates, the snow turns clear and runs away, the sun has warmth, and we peel off layers of sweater(s) and tee(s).  Brave talk considering the snow hasn’t arrived….. yet.
Technically, I’m ahead of last year.  I keep gnawing on that old bone, because last year on the first day of November the snow came with 8 below Celsius temperatures and never let up until March.  I was caught entirely unprepared.  A driveway filled with inoperable machinery.  Projects out in the cold that couldn’t be moved to the warmth of the shop.  A big stinking mess in the front yard that I didn’t clean up or even attempt to process until Spring this year.
So far, I’m mobile – the shop driveway is clear and all trailers (empty or occupied) are capable of movement.  The yard truck(s) are able to start and move.  The prospect of me quitting like last year and retreating to the basement and the Internet (in that order) is almost (but never completely) zero.
What makes the difference?
Perspective:

Amen, young lady!
Let the passions foment the fight against that dark night (aka Winter).
I’m not going blind (physically), but the words of Dylan Thomas seem apropos –
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
I sometimes wonder if I’ve forgotten more than I know…..

The Culture

Humor
This dude, John Novosad, is an outlier.
Looks weird, talks weird (a bit o’ Tiny Tim, dah?), and plays off both with his self deprecating jokes.
I give him an “A+”.
He’s the epitime of “run what you brung”:

Bettina Arndt – Aussie Psychologist
The cleavage reveal, aka passing boob show, is very biased, says Joe.
For instance, Russell Brand shows his scrawny almost hairless pasty-white upper frontal area all de doo-dah day.  Who cares?
Joe and I are somewhat revolted by Mr. Brand’s lack of chest, and his propensity to flaunt flagrantly.  Being the gentlemen we are, we say nothing and re-direct our gaze.
But should a woman walk around with an equal square footage of bare up there, there is a sudden and sometimes vitriolic reaction from the observer, the observee, the onlookers, The Culture™, and whomever.
Such splendor captivates Joe and my attention, without judgement, only curiosity.  And delight, of course, from time to time.
When it comes to women’s breasts, everyone has an opinion.
Bettina Arndt is a straight shooter from Australia.  Her career as a clinical psychologist led to her establishment as a sexual therapist, gender equality advocate….. with a twist.  She is well known for challenging anti-male feminist propaganda, and supporting men’s rights in the legal arena.
The last time we featured her in this rant was Sunday Rant – 2218.
In that video, she is conversing with Jordan Peterson during his first Australian tour.
In this video, Dr. Arndt explains at great length the “Politics of Cleavage”:

 

Canadiana

Quick Dick McDick
A cooking lesson from Saskatchewan’s agrarian ambassador.  As usual, good humor and promotion of Canadian products and sources.  The recipe sounds OK too, but for the fact that Joe and I have an adverse reaction to garlic.
And we don’t eat carbohydrates (beans, legumes, et cetera).
Or vegetables.
Or fruits.
The ground beef smells delicious!:

And another from QDMcD!  A productive work week for QDMcD; two videos to enjoy!  This is a condemnation of the Liberal administration and their fearless leader, Chief Rainbow Socks.
Joe and I agree with this Quick Dick rant:

War

Daniel Greenfield
Joe and I have always opposed sensationalism and generalization when terrorists create mayhem.
We don’t believe that “one man’s terrorist is another man’s saint”, no matter how suggestive a picture you paint of oppression or colonialism or discrimination and such.
When it comes to the senseless slaughter of innocent human beings, no matter their race, creed, gender, politics, or beauty, Joe and I say cease.
Stop in the name of humanity!
Or be stopped…..
What must follow is the duty of the sane to bring terrorists to justice.
We have followed the website “The Religion of Peace” since the attack on the World Trade Center, September 2011.
According to the good folks at The Religion of Peace, Muslim wackjobs (aka “Islamic Terrorists”) have carried out 44,144+ deadly terror attacks since 9/11.
The link will take you to the website, which chronicles each and every one of them.
Our first use of the phrase “the religion of peace” (not the website) in our on-line ranting was before the current format we use evolved.  Or emerged.  Whatever.
That rant was called Saturday – OH!  Kanada!, and was in email form before this website was born.  All the way back on November 10^th, 2010, 11 months and a day before before the infamous World Trade Center attack.
If you click the link and travel back in time, you will read that Joe Mekanic has been a stern critic of the Muslim faith, and an advocate of “sturm und drang” in retaliation.  To be clear, by sturm und drang, Joe means eradicate the aggressive sons of bitches.  By our definition, a religion that calls for the death of non adherents is no religion at all.  More like a cult for morons.
Which brings our conversation to Daniel Greenfield’s recent op-ed titled “It’s Islam, Stupid” at his website, Daniel Greenfield, aka Sultan Knish.
Joe and I argued, hummed and hawed, made our points.  Joe reluctantly agreed with me, so we are not going to copy the entire article into this rant.  We reasoned thusly – It takes a few minutes to read.  It might be an infringement of copyright if we copied it all.  Conversely, by including some quotes and links to the website/article, we can increase his traffic.
Joe and I agree with Mr. Greefield entirely on this topic.  Read some quotes from his article below, click on the link to the article above and read the whole piece.
Perhaps you will agree, too.  Some quotes –

It’s Islam, Stupid
Daniel Greenfield October 22, 2023
Beslan. Mumbai. Paris. Manchester. New York City. Nairobi. Luxor. Sulu. Kibbutz Be’eri.
186 children murdered in a school in Beslan. Dozens of children taken hostage from a Catholic school in the Philippines. Two teachers were beheaded, but not the girls. “We do not kill women. We will just enslave them,” the Jihadists promised. 8-year-olds gunned down in the Westgate Mall in Nairobi. The terrorists asked their victims to name Mohammed’s mother to tell apart the non-Muslims from the Muslims. In Luxor, Egypt, the terrorists danced, sang and killed and mutilated the foreign tourists. They “took all the young women, the girls, and disappeared with them. I don’t know where they went with the women, but they hurt them. We could hear screams of pain.” Among the dead was Shaunnah Turner, a 5-year-old British girl.
Pregnant women and children murdered in Israel baffle the world. They seem implausible because each time they happen, we forget. A few days of horror pass and we move on.
When a Muslim terrorist set off a bomb in Manchester at a concert full of children and teens, there was shock and outrage. Nails were pulled out of children’s faces.
“This attack stands out for its appalling, sickening cowardice, deliberately targeting innocent, defenceless children and young people,” then Prime Minister Theresa May fumed.
That was 6 years ago. It might have been an eternity.
Our governments, talking heads and thought leaders find excuses for the killers. The Manchester Arena bomber was angry about the Syrian Civil War so he killed some British kids. Abu Sayyaf, ‘Bearers of the Sword’, keeps attacking Christian schools in the Philippines because it isn’t allowed to form its own state. The Jihadis who murdered children in Beslan were furious about Chechnya, in Nairobi, they were upset about Somalia, and in Luxor about the ban on the Muslim Brotherhood. In Israel, Hamas murdered children because the border wall makes their terror entity into an “open air prison” which prevents them from killing Israeli children.
We’re told not to look at the pattern. It’s Islamophobic. Instead we must take each attack not as a manifestation of Islam, but of local issues or a response to oppression. When Muslims gang raped and sawed in half a Hindu schoolteacher in Kashmir, it was about India’s treatment of Muslims. And when they rampaged through the Bataclan theater in Paris, killing everyone within reach, they were protesting France’s treatment of ISIS. And when they rape a woman at a concert in Israel by the bodies of her murdered friends, they’re protesting for Gaza.
But in 1929, Muslim mobs in the Jewish city of Safed burst into an orphanage and “smashed the children’s heads and cut off their hands.” During the Hebron Massacre that same year, a British policeman described how, “on hearing screams in a room I went up a sort of tunnel passage and saw an Arab in the act of cutting off a child’s head with a sword. He had already hit him and was having another cut, but on seeing me he tried to aim the stroke at me, but missed; he was practically on the muzzle of my rifle. I shot him low in the groin.”
Israel had not even come into existence yet. What were Muslims protesting then: Jews?
During the first siege of Vienna in 1529, when the invading Muslim horde decided that “children were cut out of their mothers’ wombs and stuck on pikes”, was that a protest against colonialism or capitalism? When a Muslim chronicle boasted that during the genocide against the Sikhs in the 18th century, “the shrieks of the women captives who were being raped, deafened the ears of the people”, was this a response to globalism or Zionism? Or was this just Islam.
Everything Hamas did during the bloody High Holy Days massacres has been done by Muslims throughout history and is still being practiced today. There is nothing new here whatsoever. Medieval barbarism never went away because Islam kept those grisly practices alive. It endures side by side with the modern world of smartphones, electric cars and AI because its worst crimes are an object of religious law and faith.
A Yazidi girl abducted by the Islamic State when she was only 12 described how the Jihadist who raped her explained to her that because she “practiced a religion other than Islam, the Quran not only gave him the right to rape her — it condoned and encouraged it”. He “bound her hands and gagged her. Then he knelt beside the bed and prostrated himself in prayer before getting on top of her. When it was over, he knelt to pray again”. The girl begged him to stop, but he “said that by raping me, he is drawing closer to Allah.”

This is Islam.

It’s not about Israel, India, Russia, America, England, France, the Philippines or any of the numerous other countries that have been marked by Islamic terrorism. It’s not about “oppression”, “colonialism”, “settlers”, “cartoons” or a lack of “integration”. None of the excuses ever hold up or explain the pattern that consistently and indelibly marks Islamic violence…….”

Our comment is that Mr. Greenfield makes our point for us – it is Islam.
No progress will be possible, the attacks will continue, the misery and murder, ad nauseam, until the non-Muslim world holds them to account.  Or, fat chance, they see the error of their ways and change.
One more quote from Mr. Greenfield’s op-ed, a quote that Joe and I consider a call to arms –
“….. We are not responsible for Islamic terrorism. None of us. Only Islam is responsible.
Islamic violence is over 1,000 years old. It predates most modern countries and it is not caused by anything we do. The only thing we are guilty of is our failure to smash the Jihad.”
Joe and I concur.
Perhaps Israel will, this time, start to do what must be done.
Perhaps the rest of the nations of humanity will, this time, help Israel and then, finish the job.

Music

Once the seasonal melancholy has set in, and it has, the numbing thought of at least four months of unattractive, cold, miserable, lifeless dark ahead causes a paralysis of continuity, of continuance.  A pause which, so far (74+ years), does not refresh.  Which makes Joe and I seek music to outline the mind set.  Some examples of our rambling follow –

 

Health

Dr. Sam Bailey
Dr. Bailey is a crusader.
She is to the medical community what Nina Teicholz is to the nutrition community.
Although when she speaks in her New Zealand drawl you think she’s a Kiwi, she is really from Missouri, the “show me” state.  We say that becuase Dr. Bailey (like Nina) demands to know the foundation argument behind what is assumed knowledge in the medical discipline.
In this video, she questions the veracity of the miracle drugs labeled as “antibiotics”.  Spoiler alert!  If you are comfortable believing antibiotics are miracle drugs, maybe don’t watch.  Dr. Bailey presents information that will have you questioning your belief(s):

 

Science

CO2
Dr. William Happer is a hero.
He has known the science and sung the praises of CO2 for at least 40 years.
He has the credentials.
He has the knowledge.
He shares his wisdom.
And in the following video, he hints at whom and who are benefiting or suffering by the climate hysteria focused on CO2.
There is a group of sane stable intelligent incredibly wise folks who created the “CO2 Coalition“.  Click on the link.  Then click on “Members”.
You will see that Dr. Happer is a founding member, and the current chair.
Look further.  You will see Dr. Patrick Moore is one of the Board of Directors.
Look further still.  You will see a membership of dozens of S.T.E.M. scientists, some whom you may have heard of, many you have not.
Unlike the mob agitators who stir up the ill educated or gullible to a frenzy of fear, these advocates of the CO2 Coalition have cool, clear, data.  And facts.  And logic.  All very refreshing:

 

Joe’s Garage

Edison Motors
So, a couple of Canucks decide to build a diesel over electric truck.
One of the guys is a trucker.
The other, an engineer.
In one year they have built a heavy truck that operates on batteries and uses a diesel engine to run a gen set.
In the following video from DeBossGarage, you can see it move its first load – all up weight 100000+ pounds.
As they say through huge grins, 10 tons more than a Tesla transport.
When the user deals directly with the designer, wonderful things can happen.
Joe and I wonder how long their company will survive before being eaten up by an existing behemoth:

The Dark Web
How about a primer on how to access, use, and navigate The Dark Web….. without getting hacked or your computer frozen.
That’s what “NetworkChuck” says he can teach you in 15 minutes.
Joe and I used TOR some years back to access The Dark Web.
Because TOR isn’t a browser, because there are no browsers for The Dark Web, we lost interest.
After watching this video, Joe says it’s about time we used a VPN and went out and about on The Dark Web again.
Who knows what evil lurks?:

Virtual Machine
Another from the studio of NetworkChuck.
Joe and I use a “virtual machine” to view some of the service manuals that we own.  More skills to learn, to enable more versatility, more flexibility, more ability, more security.  Joe says the only thing stopping us is time to learn:

Continue reading Sunday Rant – 4423